Numerous media sites reported today on NFL pariah Colin Kaepernick tracing his roots back to Africa. They portrayed him as a victim who is being "blackballed" by team owners and as a great humanitarian. They reported little about his angering of Americans by disrespecting the flag, veterans and police officers or his role with the radical group Black Lives Matter.
The ultra-liberal MSN.com page ran a story sympathetic to the unsigned free agent with the headline "Colin Kaepernick Goes 'Home' to Ghana to Find His Independence." The post stated, "The former 49ers quarterback tweeted a minute-long video Tuesday of a trip he took to Cape Coast Castle, a former slave trade hub in Ghana, and questioned the celebration of Independence Day in the U.S."
MSN's report added: "NFL teams don't appear willing to take on what could be a distraction despite Kaepernick's talent that most believe exceeds that of other quarterbacks like Austin Davis, Ryan Fitzpatrick and E.J. Manuel, who signed as free agents this offseason.
"Clearly those signings have not caused Kaepernick to tone down his political activism, but isn't he simply exercising the very freedoms other Americans were celebrating in the form of beer, hot dogs and fireworks?" (emphasis added)
Flag MSN for "unjournalistic-like conduct" on this subjective defense of Kaepernick.
CBS Sports' Nate Peterson led with this: "Colin Kaepernick took to social media on the Fourth of July to explain why he took a recent trip to Ghana to find his own independence. His Twitter post features a video of his journey, while an Instagram post featuring the same video included a message from Kaepernick, starting with a quote from Frederick Douglass":
"What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence?" - Frederick Douglass. In a quest to find my personal independence, I had to find out where my ancestors came from. I set out tracing my African ancestral roots, and it lead me to Ghana. Upon finding out this information, I wanted to visit the sites responsible for myself (and many other Black folks in the African Diaspora) for being forced into the hells of the middle passage. I wanted to see a fraction of what they saw before reaching the point of no return. I spent time with the/my Ghanaian people, from visiting the local hospital in Keta and the village of Atito, to eating banku in the homes of local friends, and paying my respects to Kwame Nkrumah's Memorial Park. I felt their love, and truly I hope that they felt mine in return."
Kaepernick's tweet is now all over the internet:
Peterson wrote, "The NFL free agent Kaepernick has passed his time as a free agent by taking up multiple humanitarian causes over the past few months. He donated his gigantic sneaker collection to homeless people in San Francisco in January, and in March, he helped raise funds to fly a plane full of food and water to help the struggling population of Somalia.
"Kaepernick has also made a $50,000 donation to Meals on Wheels, donated hundreds of custom suits to a charity that helps people get a job after they're released from jail and has donated $700,000 to charity over the past nine months as part of a pledge last season where he promised to donate a total of $1 million to help communities in need. Also, he's been running his 'Know your rights' camp."
While overlooking the self-inflicted damage Kaepernick has done to himself, these and other media are doing everything they can to make the case that some NFL team should sign this "do-gooder."
